Coin and letter holder for mail-boxes.



A. H. GRIFFIN. 7 COM AND LETTER HOLDER FORMAIL BOXES, APPLICATiON FILED nov.1s,19|5.

1 Q,'E%%, Patented Sept. 5, 1916' ALVAI-IH. GRIFFIN, or LINCOLN, ALABAMA.

COIN AND LETTER HOLDER MAIL-BOXES.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALvAH H. GRIFFIN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lincoln, in the county of Talladega and State of Alabama, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Coin and Letter Holders for Mail-Boxes, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

The subject of this invention is a device for holding coins, stamps, letters, or other mail matter, and particularly to a device adapted to be disposed within a mail box so constructed as to receive and hold coins, stamps, or like articles, and permit their ready-discharge, and also adapted to hold mail matter.

The object of this invention is to provide a very simple, cheaply made, and effective device of this character, so constructed that a relatively large number of letters or other mail matter may be held in conjunction with the cup for holding coin and so formed that the cup for holding coin will be braced and strengthened by the peculiar formation of the clip so that it will not readily become de-formed by accident.

A further object is to so construct the letter clip and the cup that the clip will provide means whereby the cup may be readily handled without liability of slipping from the fingers.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure l is a sectional view of a mail box with my coin and letter receptacle disposed therein; Fig. 2 is a like view to Fig. 1 but showing a letter disposed in the clip of the receptacle; Fig. 3 is a sectional view transversely through the coin receptacle and looking downward toward the base.

On rural delivery routes it is common for the patrons of the route to leave their letters unstamped within the collecting receptacle and to leave with the letters coins suflicient to pay the postage on the letters. The carrier when he collects the letters also collects the coins. As the coins are placed upon the bottom of the receptacle they have to be picked up one by one and this in cold weather is diflicult and it also happens that coins become placed in the corners of the box where they are not readily observable by the postman, and it also often happens that the coins are dropped by the postman,

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 5, 1916.

Application filed November 13, 1915. Serial No. 61,373.

particularly if his fingers are cold. Furthermore, on routes of this character it is'common for the patrons to leave in the box a sum of money suflicient to buy a certain amount of stamps. The carrier simply leaves the stamps within the box and these stamps may very readily become shoved back in a dark corner of the box where they are not readily observed, or unless the box is very tight in construction, may become lost out. In damp weather the stamps may be insufliciently protected and adhere to thereasonable limit.

Specifically, my improved device compr1s es a cup 2 which may have any usual or ordinary shape but which is preferably formed with a flange 3 at its upper end.

Surrounding the cup 2 is a helical coil 4 of resilient wire. The uppermost coil of this wire is wrapped closely around the cup and soldered or otherwise rigidly attached thereto. The succeeding lower coils, however, are not attached to the cup and do not embrace it closely so that the coils may have movement with relation to the cup itself. Toward the lower end of the coils the coils expand in diameter and the last two coils 5 and 6 are of considerably greater diameter than the cup, the coil 6, however, being larger in diameter than the coil 5. The coils 5 and 6 together constitute a letter clip or a clip for holding mail matter.

In the use of my invention, letters or other mail matter is disposed between the coils 5 and 6, the coils being expanded downward below the cup for this purpose and the money to pay postage upon the letters is disposed within the cup 2. The carrier coil 6 constitutes a relatively broad base for 110 the cup so that it will not accidentally be overturned, and furthermore that the coils 5 and 6 constitute an expansible clip which may be expanded to relatively great extentterior of the cup which will be readily gripped by the fingers of the user. The coils are contracted and thus normally the bottom of the cup rests upon the floor of the mail box, but when letters are deposited between the clips this coil expands. Inasmuch as the base coil 6 is always at the lower end of the device the letters, newspapers, etc., which may be deposited Within the coils will contractible spring surrounding and operatively connected to the cup having its base coils larger than the cup, said base coils being adapted to receive mail matter between them.

In testimony whereof I hereunto affix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

ALVAH H. GRIFFIN. Witnesses R. B. BURNS, L. W. 'KINsoN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents Washington,D. C. 

